Hi everyone! Another chapter ready to go! We're almost at the finish line for the prologue!

Enjoy!

Chapter 8:

"HEY UGLY! Come on out!" Grim's voice reverberated through the tunnel. At the same time, Claire threw her rock into the cave and shivered as the echo slowly dissipate. All seemed normal at first, but then there was a glowing purple light that grew bigger and bigger in the tunnel.

"L..Leee… LeeEAVEEEE!" The monster raised his lantern as he came out. Black ooze seemed to be dripping down to the ground, turning to mist upon impact.

"I-It's here!" Grim squeaked at the towering fiend before them.

"If you want us to leave, you'll have to catch us!" Claire taunted, cupping her hands to her mouth. The ghost turned to her now.

"You…Thief… Won't give… Mine!... MINE!" He raised his axe, but Claire was ready this time. She quickly sprinted to the right as the ground shuddered. She almost tripped but managed to find her footing.

"Okay, let's move!" she ordered. The two dashed away from the tunnel and back to the forest.

"Come on, you big lump of ink!" Grim yelled as Claire threw another rock, "Catch us!"

"Go… away… GO… AWAY!"

Claire glanced over her shoulder and saw that the monster had taken the bait and left the mine tunnel to pursue them. They ran down the path and soon came across a large clearing where there were few trees in sight. She kept looking over her shoulder, waiting for the monster to stand in the center of the field.

"NOW!" she yelled. Grim swiftly turned to face the monster while Claire jumped and hid behind the nearest bush. Ace quickly stepped out from hiding and stood next to Grim.

"All right! One special Extra-Large Wind Tempest coming right up!" He held out his pen and gave it a wave.

"The Great Grim's Fire Special!" Grim yelled, raising his arms.

The monster suddenly realized that he was now surrounded by a powerful ring of blue fire that roared twenty feet into the air.

"How's that?!" Ace grinned at the giant conflagration. "With the right adjustment, I can get even Grim's sloppy fire to look like an inferno."

"My fire is not sloppy!" Grim hissed, "Why does everything coming from your mouth have to be rude?"

"Save the snide comments!" Claire yelled from the bush, "Now's our chance! Deuce!"

On the opposite side, Deuce quickly aimed his pen high up in the air where the monster's head was. "Calm down… Breath…" he mumbled with his eyes closed. He imagined the heaviest thing that he could come up with and kept that image strong in his mind. "Come forth, cauldron!"

A forty-pound cauldron materialized and smashed onto the ghost's head. The weight crushed the ghost, and it toppled to the ground. It struggled for a second but was pinned to the ground.

"Good going!" Claire said, raising her fist into the air.

"I-I did it," Deuce said, in wide-eyed astonishment.

"Yes! That monster looks flat like Ace from earlier!" Grim said, satisfied.

"Hey, can it with the rude comments," Ace scowled and then groaned, "Jeez, today is just not my day."

"Let's hurry and get that crystal before it gets up again," Deuce said, pointing the path back to the Dwarf's Mine.

"WAITTTTT!" the monster cried, struggling to get up. It reached out and tried to grab them but caught nothing but air.

The four of them raced back into the dark tunnel, using the make-shift torch Claire produced from a stick and Grim's fire. The twisting passageways were confusing, but upon coming across the abandoned flashlight Claire dropped earlier (and proceeding to pick it up), they knew that they were headed in the right direction.

"Okay," Claire said, "I remember the light came from over… there! This has to be the place!" She pointed to the right, and their destination turned out to be a giant cavern where hundreds of gems were glittering around.

"Where is it?" Grim said, panicking as he looked up, down, left, and right. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.

"Split up!" Ace ordered. The four scattered in different directions and inspected the walls. A few minutes passed before one of them shouted in excitement.

"There!" Deuce pointed. "That's it!" Embedded into the rock wall near the bottom right was a fist-size glittering crystal that looked similar to the one on the school's chandelier.

"Wait…" Grim said slowly, realizing the dilemma, "How are we supposed to get it out?"

Deuce knelt down and wrapped both hands around the crystal. He gritted his teeth and planted his feet to the ground, but no matter how hard he twisted and tugged, the crystal refused to budge.

"It's stuck!"

"Ah geez," Ace groaned, "What now?"

"Step aside!" Claire grabbed an abandoned chisel nearby, pulled a mallet from her tool belt, and started to chip away. "Cover for me, okay?" She managed to find a small crevice and started to strike as hard as she could against the flat end of the chisel. It was an arduous process, but she knew they were close to victory.

"HANDS OFFFFF!"

The group froze. The voice didn't belong to any of them. The scream was still far off in the distance but was coming closer and closer by the second.

"Damnit! That thing got free!" Ace exclaimed. Terrified, he turned to Claire, who started to pound even quicker. "Can't you go any faster?"

"Do I look like a miner?!" She frowned as she tried to insert the chisel deeper into the small crack.

Come on… Come on…

"THIEFFFFF!" The monster was twenty feet away now.

"Deuce, throw some more stuff!" Grim exclaimed.

"Uhh, throw something? Okay, come out cauldron!" He waved his wand, and a large pot (smaller than the previous one) came crashing down on the monster, but it didn't seem to slow down. "Uhh, how about another cauldron! No? How about this?! And another!"

A shower of cauldrons came raining down, and the sheer weight and volume finally caused the monster to buckle and topple to the ground.

"Is your head filled with nothing but cauldrons?!" Ace said in bewilderment.

"Shut up!" Deuce said through gritted teeth as sweat dripped down from his forehead. "I'm at my wit's end."

"Claire!" Grim cried, turning his head towards her.

"One more second!" Claire yelled, not bothering to look up. With one final crack, the crystal loosened and fell into the palm of her hand. "Got it!"

"Good," Grim said with a breath of relief and then yelled, "Now let's get out of here!"

Claire pocketed the crystal into her jumpsuit and ran after the others. Grim sent out a large blast of fire as they ran past the monster.

"STOOooOOOP! That… ISSSSS… MINNNNEEEEE!" It struggled underneath the mountain of cauldrons; its hands grasped nothing but air once more.

"Don't stop! Don't look back!" Ace said as they charged out. With Claire's recovered flashlight, they retraced their steps back to the cave's entrance.

"The mirror!" Deuce yelled as they stepped out of the cave, "We need to get to the mirror!"

They didn't stop for a breather and ran down the winding path. Claire sighed a breath of relief when she saw the cottage. They were almost at the home stretch.

"STooOooOOPP THIEVES!" The group turned and saw to their horror that the monster was barreling towards them at unbelievable speed now.

"How did it catch up so quickly?!" Ace stared in disbelief.

"Keep running!" Claire panicked. Despite knowing this, she was almost at her limit as she willed her aching legs to move one step faster.

"Giv… GIVE… GIVE IT… BACK!"

The monster raised his pickaxe and slammed it to the ground. The force caused the land to shudder, and they all fell to the ground. Before Claire could get back to her feet, a large hand wrapped around her body and lifted her off high into the air.

"CLAIRE!" Grim screamed.

What happened next, Claire couldn't describe, even after the ordeal. The best way she could explain it was electricity coursing through every part of her body. Each pain receptor screamed in agony, and flashes of images that were too fast to follow filled her mind.

It wasn't until later that she realized she had been screaming and crying at the same time and had almost passed out. However, the grip around her body soon slackened, and delirious with pain, she looked up blearily at the dripping ink head.

"Y… You… no… Sno…" the monster spoke in slurred words.

"GRIM!" Ace pointed his magic pen at the ghost, "I need your fire! NOW!"

A giant blue fire tornado hit squarely on the ghost's hand, dropping Claire to the ground like a ragged doll. The monster clutched its hand in pain and turned its attention back to Ace and Grim.

"Deuce!" Ace yelled, "Hit him!"

"GO! Cauldron!" Deuce yelled.

A giant cauldron smashed against its face, knocking it to the ground. This time, however, it didn't get back up. Its hands twitched before turning motionless.

Grim was already running towards Claire who hadn't gotten up. Deuce and Ace still kept their magic pens aimed at the monster's head and waited for any sign of movement. Soon, the monster's shape melted into black ink and then turned to mist, spreading across the field.

"Urgh, not again," Ace grimaced, but like before, the smog didn't seem to be doing any harm to them.

"What is this stuff?" Deuce wondered out loud.

"Claire! Wake up!" Grim was shaking her shoulder. There was genuine panic in his voice. Coughing, Claire slowly got up, shaken from the ordeal.

"Claire," Deuce said urgently, coming over, "Are you okay?"

They took everything… everything… Snowww…

"Did you guys hear that?" Claire looked around, wondering where it was coming from.

"Huh? Hear what?" Ace looked over his shoulder, with his magic pen raised over his head.

"I don't hear anything," Grim said, head tilted to the side. "You sure you're not imagining things?"

"Never mind." Claire couldn't help but shake off the feeling that something was wrong. The voice she heard just sounded so… heartbroken.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Deuce repeated.

"Sure I'm sure," Claire insisted, shrugging off the concern. She took a deep breath and winced slightly. She tenderly touched her ribs. The pain was still there, but it had dulled significantly. She could at least think now.

"Is that it? Is it over?" she asked as she looked up.

"Looks like it…" Ace said slowly and glanced around them one more time.

"That means… We won! We actually won!" Grim exclaimed with a joyful smile on his face.

"Yes!" Deuce said, raising his fist into the air. Ace even whooped, elated with excitement.

"High-five everyone!" Grim said.

"Yeah!" The three of them immediately raised their hands (and paws) for a joyful congratulatory celebration.

"Awww, you guys!" Claire said with a triumphant smirk on her face as she got up to her feet. "Look at you! Being all buddy-buddy now."

"I-It's not like that," Deuce said flustered as he quickly moved away from Ace and Grim. He hastily brushed the dirt off his pants and straightened his tie.

"Y-yeah, can you stop saying embarrassing things?" Ace scratched the back of his head, unable to maintain eye contact with any of them.

"We won because I'm a genius!" Grim insisted, paws on hips. "It's not because we worked together."

"Right, right," Claire said, done with the conversation. She pulled out the crystal from the pocket for them to see carefully for the first time. It glittered in the pale moonlight with red, blue, and green.

"That's it. That's what we were looking for," Deuce said with a breath of relief, and Claire quickly pointed down the road.

"Come on, let's head back with this before Cro- the Headmaster expels you two." All the adrenaline she had from earlier was spent, and she was ready for a hot shower and sleep. She pocketed their reward and barely took two steps when Ace called out to her.

"Hey, wait, Claire," he said.

She turned, surprised to see both Ace and Deuce standing all serious now.

"I know making excuses is pretty lame, and…" Ace said, scratching the back of his head, "I hate to admit it, but your plan helped us win."

"Agreed," Deuce nodded with a warm smile now, "Your instructions definitely helped get us the crystal. You have my thanks. I'll make sure to return the favor."

"Oh uh… thanks," Claire said, taken aback by the sincerity. She didn't even have a sarcastic remark and could feel her ears turned red. "But really, this was because you guys were willing to work together," she insisted.

"Right, right, power of teamwork; we get it," Ace sighed, already bored with the term. "Can we go home now?"

"I'm so hungry," Grim complained.

"I'll get you a can of tuna from Cro- the Headmaster. He owes us that much at least," Claire said; however, Grim didn't hear her and sniffed the air with interest.

"Wait, what's this smell?"

"What smell?" Claire sniffed the night air and looked at Deuce and Ace, but both had the same clueless look. Grim walked over to the side where the monster had fallen and picked up a dull black stone.

"Did that come from the ghost?" Deuce asked, taking a closer look.

"You mean that is its remains?" Claire said, disgusted.

"It looks like a magic crystal… But I never seen one pitch black in color," Deuce said slowly. Even in the pale moonlight, the stone didn't shine.

"It smells good," Grim said, placing his nose close to mysterious rock and inhaling the scent.

"You got to be joking. That thing just came from that monster," Ace said, coming over with a disgusted look as well.

"Grim," Claire said in a warning tone, "don't you dare…"

"It's got to be a candy that the monster was hiding!" Grim said, clearly not listening. He held the crystal to his drooling mouth. Before they could stop him, he opened his mouth wide and with a giant gulping sound, swallowed the stone whole. His face immediately turned to horror as he started to make choking noises.

"Grim!" Claire exclaimed, "Spit it out! Spit it out!"

"D… D-DELICIOUS!" Grim grinned ecstatically and jumped in the air.

"What?!" The three of them stared at Grim with wide-eyed disbelief.

"It's rich and sweet like a dessert! It just blossoms in my mouth like a burst of flowers blooming in a meadow!" He rubbed his cheeks as he tried to savor the taste once more.

"GRIM! I told you not to eat it!" Claire scolded at the unrepentant raccoon. "What if you get sick!?"

"EWWW," Ace gagged, sticking his tongue out in revulsion again. "Monsters really do like weird things."

"To be fair, most people wouldn't even think about picking up something strange from the ground and just eat it," Deuce pointed out.

"Don't worry," Grim grinned with his chest puffed out proudly, "My stomach isn't weak like you humans!"

The other three glanced at each other with skeptical disbelief at Grim's comment, but there was nothing they could do. What's done was done.

"Well, don't go crawling to us when you get sick later," Ace warned.

Author's Notes

Interesting, a black rock that came out of nowhere? Of course, this isn't foreshadowing anything…

Well, we finally got the magic crystal! So nice to see Claire, Grim, Ace, and Deuce getting along well.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.

-JD